Bellator 245 Results and Video Highlights: Davis squeaks by Machida, again

Dave Mandel-USA TODAY Sports

Bellator 245 had one finish and two no contests due to groin strikes.

The first of Bellator MMA’s back-to-back doubleheader just concluded inside the fan-less Mohegan Sun Casino and Resort in Uncasville, CT. The main event was a rematch seven years in the making, with Phil Davis and Lyoto Machida meeting for the first time since UFC 163.

Davis won that night in Rio, via unanimous decision (with many questioning whether they watched the same fight as the judges), and it was Mr. Wonderful who again did enough to beat ‘The Dragon’. Just like their first contest this was a close one that went to the scorecards.

The result of those scorecards was a split decision in favour of Davis. And, in this observer’s opinions, he more than earned it — keeping Machida at bay, scoring with strikes, and taking zero damage in the process.

The co-main event featured the promotional debut of former UFC bantamweight title challenger Cat Zingano. She took on Gabrielle Holloway, who came in heavy, in the featherweight division. Zingano looked nervous at times, but did enough to win on the judges’ scorecards—even if there was a brief period in which it looked as though she could have been finished.

Also on the Bellator 245 main card ‘Tombstone’ Taylor Johnson wowed onlookers with a quick and nasty heel hook finish over collegiate wrestling superstar Ed Ruth.

On the prelims Leslie Smith, who walked out with a T-shirt that said ‘Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor’, got a convincing decision victory against Amanda Bell. Also on the prelims, former LFA light heavyweight champion Alex Polizzi beat former Bellator middleweight champion Rafael Carvalho by unanimous decision.

The low-lights of the card came in the form of two fights that were declared no contests because of brutal strikes to the groin.

The first of those happened on the prelim card when Jack May was kneed in the balls by Tyrell Fortune. May was so hurt he took the entire five minutes to recuperate and still couldn’t make it up to his feet. The second groin strike stoppage was even worse. In the second round of his fight with Peter Stanonik, kickboxing luminary Raymond Daniels nailed his opponent with a spinning back kick bellow the belt. Stanonik went down, took almost five minutes to rest up and then came back out to fight. But mere seconds later he was down again after another power kick from Daniels to the nards. Thanks to the empty arena we were able to hear—loud and clear—the sickening thuds of all these nut shots and the awful screams of both men who took them.

FULL RESULTS

Main Card:

Light heavyweight: Phil Davis def. Lyoto Machida by split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28).

The first round was a tense affair filled with plenty of feints and few landed strikes. The only things that scored for either man were a couple of hard kicks. Both men scored with leg kicks, while Davis also landed a few front kicks to Machida’s body.

In the second Davis continued to attack the body with kicks, keeping Machida uncomfortable and out of range. With Machida thinking about the kicks, Davis tried headhunting with some punches. One of those punches, off of a body kick, half-caught the ‘Dragon’ causing him to stumble, but it looked more like a slip than a legitimate knockdown.

Despite being possibly behind on the scorecards, Machida was still passive and looking to counter punch in the third. But Davis was too quick and too tricky to give the Brazilian the opening he needed to win the fight. The fight petered out without anything significant happening in the round and lead to a split decision win for Davis. Personally, I don’t know how Machida won two rounds.

Either way it was a rather unsatisfying fight that took Davis’ record to 21-5 and dropped Machida to 26-9. For Davis the win might be enough to have him jump the line in the shallow light heavyweight division and get a crack at recently crowned champ Vadim Nemkov. For Machida, who is now 42-years-old, it’s going to be a struggle to find meaningful fights in the promotion that get him anywhere near a title shot.

Featherweight: Cat Zingano def. Gabrielle Holloway via unanimous decision (29-27, 30-26, 30-26).

This was Cat Zingano’s first Bellator appearance and her first fight since losing to Megan Anderson in 2018. The match-making here is a little suspect, with the 10-4 former UFC title challenger taking on a 6-5 fighter who hasn’t fought in three years.

In an erratic start, both fighters missed punches before finding themselves in a clinch in the center of the cage. Zingano got Holloway down from there and took side control. From there she looked for some submissions and dropped a couple of elbows onto Holloway’s jaw. Then she rushed with an armbar attempt, which allowed Holloway to escape the position and stand up.

More clinchwork followed with Zingano controlling the action up against the cage. From that position Zingano landed shoulder strikes, knees and then a big body lock takedown.

In the second Zingano started with leg kicks and then scored another takedown. From there she landed ground and pound against the cage for the duration of the round. She achieved full mount at one point and landed hard elbows. She was also to able to land heavy knees against Holloway’s ribs.

Zingano had Holloway down quickly in the third, too. Holloway was able to get up this time, though. From the ensuing clinch Holloway was able to get a takedown of her own and land in full mount. Zingano did her best to deny Holloway space, but Holloway was able to lean back and land some hard punches and elbows. After taking sustained and considerable damage, Zingano powered her way out from underneath Holloway and reverse the position.

With a minute left Zingano got on Holloway’s back, where she landed some ground and pound and looked for a choke as time expired. Despite that scare in the third it was pretty obvious that Zingano had won at least two of the three rounds.

Middleweight: Taylor Johnson def. Ed Ruth via submission (inverted heel hook), round 1 (0.59).

Three time NCAA Division 1 champion wrestler, and one time MMA super prospect, Ed Ruth came into this one off the second loss of his 10 fight career. Last time out he was on the wrong side of a unanimous decision versus Yaroslav Amosov. The 5-1 Taylor Johnson was making his promotional debut and coming off of a loss, too—at Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series.

Ruth went to his wrestling early and had Johnson down inside of 15 seconds. In response Johnson went for Ruth’s leg and eventually was able to crank it in all kinds of ways it shouldn’t go. Ruth tried to get free, but he just put himself in more danger and before he knew it he was tapping from the pain. That was the KO specialist Johnson’s first ever submission win.

Welterweight: Raymond Daniels vs. Peter Stanonik ends in a No Contest after Peter Stanonik sustained two strikes to the groin in the second round and could not continue.

Bellator kickboxing welterweight champion Raymond Daniels came into this bout with a 3-1 MMA record (and 38-3 kickboxing record) to face Peter Stanonik, who was 5-4 in MMA and has some kickboxing experience with Glory.

Both fighters came out kicking in this one, with Daniels being far more showy with his spinning and leaping attacks. Daniels also brought the punches, hitting Stanonik with short combos. One of Daniels spins came back to haunt him, though. He face planted after a slip and Stanonik pounced, getting full mount on the MMA neophyte. Daniels was able to get back to half-guard, where he harried Stanonik from the bottom with palm strikes before escaping out the back.

Back on the feet, Stanonik started walking Daniels down, eating leg kicks and a few punches along the way. He landed some heavy leg kicks in return, but whiffed on high kicks.

In round two Daniels came out swinging, again, with flashy spinning kicks and punches to the body. Stanonik responded with another thudding leg kick. Then, Daniels went for a spinning body kick and landed it flush, to Stanonik’s testicles. It dropped Stanonik, whose cries of agony were easy to hear in the empty arena.

Stanonik wisely took almost the entire five minutes to recover. The fight was restarted and seconds later Daniels smashed Stanonik in the junk again. Again, we heard all of Stanonik’s literal cries of pain. That was enough for everyone involved. No contest for this one.

Preliminary Card:

Light Heavyweight: Alex Polizzi def. Rafael Carvalho via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).

Featherweight: Leslie Smith def. Amanda Bell via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).

Heavyweight: Tyrell Fortune vs. Jack May ends in a No Contest. In the first round May sustained an inadvertent blow to the groin and could not continue.

Catchweight (140 lbs): Keith Lee def. Vinicius Zani via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28).